travelling success

I had some big successes yesterday!

It was my brother who pointed out the particular challenges that plane travel might present. I hadn't really thought too deeply about it - it was only an hour and a half flight, I wasn't much worried about getting bored, about trying to sleep, or about getting hungry. But it's true I do like to get a glass of apple juice on the plane. And sometimes tea.

"What are you going to drink out of when they come around with refreshments?" he asked.

Darnit. I hadn't thought. But that's ok, I figured, I'll get them to put a drink in my water bottle for me.

In all, it was really no problem! The first success was in the airport, when the plane was delayed and I decided to buy supper. Armed with the failure of the plastic-wrapped sandwiches I was keen to find myself a meal that was plastic-free. I surveyed the sandwich options, considered subway, but opted against the over-the-top wrapping that involves, and settled on chinese. It was served on a paper plate, and out of metal containers. Yay! Things were looking up until my plate was half-full and I suddenly realized, crap! I'm going to have to use a plastic fork! But no, this was chinese food, and they had chopsticks! Fantastic.

Next, would I like a drink with that? I was a little thirsty, but I squinted at the options in the cooler and they all came in plastic bottles. "Nothing to drink, thank you," I said to the girl behind the counter, a little sadly. Lucky for me, she understood what I wasn't saying.

"Would you just like some tap water?" she asked. Oh yes! I remembered, I had a water bottle!

"Could you put it in here for me?" I asked with a gleeful smile. She smiled in understanding, a kindred spirit to be sure, and filled it to the top. The girl totally made my day. I practically skipped (I'm sure if I hadn't been carrying a tray full of food I would have) over to a seat next to the window and ate my meal feeling very pleased with myself indeed.

So then I get on the plane and I've realized that I can't get my apple juice in my water bottle because, duh, it's full of water. But that's ok, I can live without apple juice. I've got a powerful hankering for tea, though, darnit. Then I remember that I've got a tea cup in my backpack. Not a travel mug, designed for this kind of thing, but an actual teacup. I had decided at the last minute to bring it with me, and I didn't want to repack everything in my suitcase in order to get it in there safely, so I had just tucked it in my backpack.

"What kind of tea do you have?" I ask the flight attendent.

"Regular black tea, and peppermint."

"Peppermint please, and can I ask a really strange question and get you to put it in here, please?"

"Oh yes," she says, "I totally understand. I HATE drinking tea out of a styrafoam cup."

Yay! How lovely! Yummy peppermint tea in my blue porcelain cup. Water in my stainless steel water bottle. I managed the whole trip without plastic!

Well, that's not true. Westjet likes to put big backpacks in plastic bags. But I figured I'd be better not to request that mine not get put in a bag since it wouldn't be only my bag that would be affected if straps got caught in things. I would like to point out, however, that that bag has been on many a luggage belt and it hasn't been caught yet. Maybe I've just been lucky. Or maybe we dont' really need to use the plastic bag after all.